James Whitburn is cooking up plans for the future as he continues his diary of a DIY property renovation

SO much has happened since I last wrote. One of the most memorable days was Valentine's Day. Together, my girlfriend Louise and I headed off to make one of the most important decisions of our lives so far - which kitchen to buy for the home we have been renovating since the autumn (is it only those few months?)

Unfortunately, the kitchen we chose can't be delivered until mid-April, so that has put back our completion date even more, but we're used to setbacks.

Perhaps I should also have mentioned another happening on Valentine's Day - Louise agreed to marry me.

We got engaged in the kitchen department of MFI! The staff, caught up in the magic, plied us with champagne, gave us roses and Louise pledged her love over the tannoy system, to win £100 off our kitchen. A day to remember!

I have been partially evicted from my project at our house, just off Newcastle's West Road. Having moved my business into proper offices, I can return to the house after work to see progress through objective eyes. I can't say I miss the permafrost or indeed the permanent cold I have had for the past four months.

We now have a functional bathroom. I knocked down the outside toilet and other outbuildings and we have begun the decoration.

When I began this column six months ago, I had hoped at this stage to announce, smugly, that the house was finished.

As I have begun to realise, life is not that simple. So this will be another work-in-progress report.

The skylights are all in and the floors are all sanded - a hideous, miserable job, with dirty, suffocating sawdust covering the house for days.

From this experience I would always recommend carpeted, rather than sanded, floors, as I would recommend painted, rather than stripped, doors and skirting boards and windows.

Although the finished work is breathtaking, the financial cost and back-breaking work needed is not proportional to the result and next time I would do things differently. Also it was totally pointless sanding the bathroom floor as it leaks water like a sieve - make the decision to tile or carpet early, and it will save time, money and tears.

The kitchen has been tough because the house never had much of a kitchen to start with and the space is odd shaped and complicated by the Rayburn.

Experiences with kitchen suppliers have been mixed. Some helpful, some unrealistic, some expensive, some determined to ignore our budget. Needless-to-say, it's worth shopping around.

Louise took a week off work in an attempt to finish off the work, but as we continue to near the end, we find new jobs that need to be done - the garage doors, the yard, the railings, the outside windows.

The lighter evenings and the warmer weather help me to feel that soon the house will become a home, and the worst is done. We have painted the walls and ceilings in the whole house magnolia, much to Bren, our project manager's amusement, and are picking the cornices out in the grey colour or beige colour of the mantelpiece in each room.

Louise has patience with the painting and an eye for colour. I, on the other hand, can fill skips very nicely with rubbish and am a dab hand with a hammer.

On the walls and ceilings we decided not do much replastering or skim plastering. We repaired major cracks where appropriate and put up backing paper. This decision saved us a bag full of cash, and the difference in finish is not very noticeable to the untrained eye.

Again, choosing the magnolia colour throughout makes a good point about the sense in doing this house up. In other people's houses what you often get is one room painted in one year, and another the next, so that as a result nothing matches and one room clashes with the next.

If you are doing something like our house in Summerhill Street, you have the luxury of getting the whole house finished in one coherent look and style throughout.

We will be slightly over budget when we finish - by about £1,000 - and delayed by about two weeks, which I am told is not too bad.

Last weekend we went down to London to look at the next project, a larger house, in Islington, that my sister has bought and wants to see finished in six months.

We are starting that in May time, with all the team from Newcastle heading down South.

If someone had told me last year I was going to be a real life version of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet I would have scorned.

Just call me "Barry" . . .

* James Whitburn runs a legal disputes company. For details, tel (0800) 195-8791 or log on to www.adrs.co.uk